Downing Hard Liquor
by nlsdn5
Summary: Terence could describe the relationship between himself and Adrian as fiery, sweet and just like his mild fondness for alcohol, addictive.


**Downing Hard Liquor**

When Terence Higgs was in his third year at Hogwarts, he got kicked off the Slytherin Quidditch team.

He didn't know how to express his sorrows just yet. He just felt let down that Flint chose the money Malfoy could bring to the team, not actual skill. Adrian Pucey felt the same. After the end of year Quidditch match, Hufflepuff against Gryffindor, they confided in their opinions together about human morality, the stars, Quidditch, and ''how cute do you look, so blonde and little''- Adrian's words, when they were high off some plant that a fifth year from Hufflepuff gave Adrian. They were chased off by Snape, who looked as if the pole up his ass was shoved higher up than usual. They stumbled off into one of the empty classrooms, where they laughed in drugged stupor and panted for breath. And then Terence could see that the tall, handsome Chaser was so, so close and he could every single dark eyelash on his eyelids if he wanted and he felt himself lean into his warm body-

-then the screech of Mrs Norris brought both boys back to their surroundings and they ran off into their dorms. Terence cursed the damn cat and accio'd a bottle of apple cider from his neighbour. He didn't see Adrian until the following school year.

A quarter of the way into his fourth year, Terence went for a midnight stroll. Truth be told, he just wanted to look at the stars. His astronomy teacher had said it would be a beautiful night, looking straight at him. Astronomy was a personal favourite of his; even more so was the secret desire to work a muggle profession of an astronaut and go into space. Beyond magic, beyond the trivial matters that bound him to earth. If his teacher could tell, who else could? We accept the clarity we think we deserve, and then Terence knew it was time to stop waffling around being philosophical in the middle of the night in the toilets, it smelt like vomit and piss for goodness sake.

He passed a corridor of classrooms and almost pissed himself when he heard a groan from one of the classrooms. A flurry of scenarios raced through his mind. Was it a Basilisk like last year, coming to get him? Was it a teacher raging over how stupid their students was, and was in a right mind to commit a school massacre? Perhaps it was Marcus Flint pounding into some poor first year? Against his instincts he made his way to the door, and peered into the window. The silhouette of a familiar face was seated at a desk, piled with books.

_Merlin's nipple, why is Adrian there?_

_What if he sees me?_

_I look like such a creep, even to myself._

His mind said no, but his body was screaming yes and Terence found himself gently opening the door, to gaze at the exhausted older student.

And then 2 hours later Terence found himself seated next to Adrian, guiding him on how to find the relationship between Earth and Mars in order to determine the best day in August 2025 for brewing a willow-based potion because it was due tomorrow as part of his final grade in his O.W.L's. It was quite fortunate that Terence had been kicked off the Quidditch team, his many hours of spare time had led him, in desperation to relieve his boredom, on doing extension work in his classes which granted him approval amongst teachers and the competitive side eye from that Granger girl in Gryffindor, as well as several of the Asian students in Ravenclaw.

When Adrian had finally finished, Terence allowed the tears of triumph to flow freely from his face, before his exhausted self slumped against the older student and everything went black.

A week later of seeing Adrian but having his existence being ignored, he found himself dragged by the back of his robes into another empty classroom (there seems to be a pattern to this) and found his face pressed up against a very fine collarbone as Adrian brandished a paper marked with the words ''Outstanding'' and that was when Adrian begged him to tutor his sorry ass and that he would buy him as much Butterbeer as humanly possible every week.

In his fifth year, he cursed Harry Potter and his little gang for causing so much trouble every year but truth be told he enjoyed the Triwizard tournament greatly. He even made a friend from Durmstrang- Vladimir Petrovich. They agreed to get Vlad a cute Hogwarts girl for the Yule ball if Terence got a steady supply of vodka. They found a girl from Ravenclaw in his Potions class. Vlad was impressed; she was Swedish. Terence got given a jug of magicked vodka that would get you high without inhibiting common sense, and then thought about how Adrian wasn't Swedish- he was Belgium and had a bit of Middle Eastern blood too.

The night before the Yule Ball, he walked around, drinking a little of the vodka, feeling a little more sad because the taller boy was avoiding him ever since he had made friends with Vlad, and pacing back and forth because he desperately needed to go toilet (there is totally a pattern occuring here) and when he looked up because footsteps were approaching he saw that a door to his left that wasn't there before and he also saw Professor Dumbledore looking at both him and the door, eyes sparkling with what could be called the old man version of mischief.

He asked the Headmaster if he knew what just happened and got told to open it and found a beautiful bathroom inside with a single toilet and a bookshelf and Terence could only gape because he had read about this in a book in the restricted section. And when he asked Dumbledore about who made the Room of Requirement, the answer was a person who wanted fill others' needs, as well as a ''what house are you in, son?'' As soon as Slytherin escaped his lips, Terence could see that the Headmaster didn't care anymore- everybody knew that Slytherin's were no good and Terence felt something inside him pain and for once he gathered the courage to demand an answer to ''sir, what is it about Slytherin's that you don't care for?''

The expression and weariness in the old man's eyes revealed themselves and Terence didn't need an answer- it was just easier on the heart to place them all in the same mould then try to individually care, because the one lesson you learn when you get older is to constantly lower your expectations and Terence decided there and then he would go seek out Adrian because he didn't want to become somebody bitter or jaded. He mumbled a ''sir'' as he walked away without looking back, unaware that the Headmaster stood in the corridor long after he walked off, thinking of people and places existing only in his memory.

In Terence's sixth year, You Know Who was revealed to be back and his pure-blooded parents and family gave a weary ''I knew it'' before telling him to be careful, look after your siblings, and for once, Terence was glad of the privilege he had in his birth right. That year, he took up tutoring Adrian again for his N.E.W.T.S but that year, things felt different between them. Perhaps it was the knowledge that he was to be leaving Hogwarts and there was no reason for either of them to talk again, or for Terence it was the fact that his friends had some inkling of what he felt for the older student and pushed him to make a move, which he didn't for the whole year. And that whole year, he watched Adrian go through girlfriends, stumbling across him making out with some girl alone in a corridor far too many times for comfort, and every time, a new one far more talented and better looking than Terence was, would appear afterwards and chip away at his heart and self-esteem a little more.

On the last day before the year ended he watched Adrian pack up his stuff and he listened with an increasingly sinking heart as Adrian droned on and on about leaving Lisa who was so perfect, and so hot, and everything Terence couldn't be and he finally snapped when Adrian dared to ask him to keep an eye on her and told him, no go fuck yourself. And Adrian asked if he was jealous whilst looking at him with an expression he had never seen before, it wasn't angry like he thought so but more cautiously hopeful and Terence let it come out as he mumbled a ''Of course I'm jealous, I can never be good enough for you, I've pining for you as you make out with girls in front of me all year, and even on your last day you still won't look at me, so I guess this is goodbye and I wish you all the best in your future. It's been a pleasure being your friend.'' before closing the distance between them and kissing the object of his long lasting affections just long enough that he could feel Adrian responding with his lips, and enwrapping his body with his arms before breaking it off, pulling himself out of Adrian's grasp and walking out of the room. He didn't look back.

_Go as far as you will. I hope we meet again._


End file.
